A theater organ that a Lehigh County specialty company built in the 1990s to replicate a rare 1920s console could bring more than a half million dollars when it’s auctioned Feb. 25 as part of the sale of an extraordinary music and automotive museum, officials say.

RM Auctions, in association with Sotheby’s, will auction the organ as part of contents of the Milhous Museum of Boca Raton, Fla. The collection was put together by brothers Bob and Paul Milhous through a lifelong interest in and collection of mechanical musical instruments, rare and important automobiles and more.

The collection includes more than 100 of “the world’s most desirable and exceptional theater, fair and dance organs, considered among the rarest, largest and most mechanically complex and decoratively elaborate examples in existence,” the auction house says.

The brothers had the Walker organ, which RM Auctions calls “extraordinary,” built in the 1990s by Walker Technical of Zionsville. Walker calls itself the builder of the world's largest digital theatre organs with all-custom specifications.

The auction organ was made with a custom four-manual Ken Crome console to replicate the large Wurlitzer Publix consoles of the 1920s, of which only four examples were built, RM Auctions says.

It’s 7 feet by 7 feet by 6 feet and is electronic digitally sampled — meaning it has no pipes. But it recreates fine pipe music with a 20,000-watt sound system that has 484 loudspeakers, giving it “an exceptionally powerful sound,” RM Auctions says.

The organ's "ranking" -- or the number of pipes to which its sound is equivalent -- is 89.

The console also controls a Steinway D, Mason & Hamlin BB grand pianos and the Deagan Piano-Vibraharp that will be auctioned separately.

At the time, it was the largest digital theater organ in the world, Bob Walker, founder and owner of Walker Technical, said in a telephone call as he was driving from Boca Raton to Orlando, Fla., after having vitied the auction.

Since that time, Walker said, his company has built one evern larger -- a 110 rank -- for the Tampa Bay Ligthening hockey arena in Tampa, Fla.

Walker said building the instrument was "quite an undertaiking."

"But that's what we do," Walker said of his company. "We do a lot of that." He said his company also built a large digital organ for the U.S. Naval Academy.

Walker declined to reveal the price the Millhouse brothers paid for the organ, saying it was a negotiated price and he didn't want anything he said to have a bearing on the auction.

RM Auctions press officer Katherine McFadden also declined to reveal the organ's purchase price.But RM estimates the instrument will bring a bid of $400,000 to $600,000.

But that’s not likely highest price in the auction.

The collection includes a 1926 Weber Maesto Orchestrion, among as few as seven known to exist, expected to bring $900,000 to $1.2 million; a Wurlitzer concert pianorchestra, the only example known to exist and fully restored, that is estimated to bring $1 million to $1.2 million; and a 1913 Welte Wotan Brass Band Orchestrion, the largest of its line, that’s estimated will bring $1.5 million to $2.5 million.

The 39,500-square-feet building also houses antique firearms, vintage furniture and more than 30 rare and important automobiles, several of which have estimates in excess of $1 million and the most valuable of which is a 1930 Duesenberg Model J Convertible Sedan estimated at $900,000 to $1.2 million.

For five decades, the museum has held numerous visitors and charity events.

The centerpiece of the museum is a large, hand-built, 46-foot custom carousel the Milhous brothers commissioned and built over several years. It has 42 animals, all hand-carved in basswood, accompanied by its own Wurlitzer 153 Band Organ. Its estimated price is $1 million to $1.5 million.

Bob Walker said the auction is going to be "quite an event." He said there are 700 registered bidders, and "there are some big players. A lot of people in the world – this is not national, it’s international; Korea and China and all over the world -- are coming to this."

Walker said it also was bittersweet to see the dismantling of the collection.

"It’s a shame," he said. "I wish it would have been sold as one unit. There’s many,many, many millions of dollars worth of items here. There’s nothing like it. We call it the giant tox box. They could afford it, and it was wonderful to go through and see and hear it.”

JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.